Mela Bar & Lounge — Restaurant in Decatur

My friend and I visited late one evening after she found this place while doing Uber eats, walked in and everything smelled delicious.. We walked through the restaurant looking around while waiting to be seated,served or asked if we needed sevice, it actually never happened..WOW we were in this place for 13 minutes, looking at the menu and then felt like I had stepped back into the 1920's but didn't see the white only signs, or Ethiopian signs only, they actually did not want to serve us, although there was a couple there dining already, who I thought were African Americans but after hearing their accents and noticing their ignorance also it became crystal clear. My friend asked a man who came out and sat by register(still not acknowledging our presence) for a menu, he never raised a brow and she still wanted to ask questions, I stopped her and asked her, how long have we been in here and no one has even asked if we needed anything? No one offered a menu, or a seat, it is obvious that they do not want to serve us... So unless you have an Ethiopian friend that is there with you or are of other persuasion, most likely you will be treated the same. It seems as though if you were coming from a place of escape and persecution, once you are finally in a place of relief and freedom it would behoove you to treat others as your captors did you.....If I could 0 stars I would.. Place of...

So, where do we start. We came here for a family get together off of a recommendation, and we were so excited to see what they had in store for us. We walked in excited, with smiles on our face, and smelling what seemed like amazing food. It was all of our first times there and the place looked amazing to our eyes. We were sat down at a table, got or menus and started talking to each other. A few minutes passed and we noticed we were not greeted or even offered water to drink. After this we called a waitress over to order our food, and boom our smiles fade away. She told us they had no meat, and she “forgot” to offer us drinks. It’s a Saturday night in Atlanta, how do you not have meat at your restaurant. A restaurant with no meat doesn’t seem much like one. Ethiopian food is based off of meat, to not have meat ruins it. In the end we got our coats and left with frowns on our face and empty stomachs. P.S: we had a three day reservation to this place. Moral of the story don’t come unless you asked before hand if...

If you’re into Ethiopian food, you may wonder how the food at Mela compares to the more established Desta 2 miles away. Having made multiple UberEATs orders from both Desta & Mela, here’s my verdict: both are good, but Mela does cooked vegetables (e.g. cabbage) and injera better than Desta. The vegetables are more carefully and interestingly spiced, and the injera has a more robust sourdough-like flavor from the fermentation process. However I find the stews (e.g. lentils) and proteins significantly better at Desta. Not only do they taste better, I found a small stone in my lentils from Mela! The vegetarian platter at Desta also has much more variety than Mela. Mela also surrounds their fish in excessive injera, leading it to become soggy after delivery. I can’t comment on the ambience or service at Mela, but I can say this: even though Mela is closer to me and I sometimes like variety, I predict I’ll order delivery from Desta over Mela 4...